Recently enacted Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations require communities to sample wastewater at their municipal wastewater treatment plants for low level amounts of mercury expressed in nanograms per liter (parts per trillion). Due to this relatively new sampling requirement, a need for fluid sampling methods and apparatus has been created. Fluid samples from water or wastewater sources needed to perform the EPA Test Method 1631 are typically obtained using a small pump that pumps water or wastewater through a length of plastic tubing and into a specially cleaned laboratory glass bottle. The bottled sample is thereafter transported to a laboratory that is equipped to analyze the sample for trace amounts of mercury.
The EPA sampling procedure for EPA Test Method 1631 is referred to as the “clean hands-dirty hands” technique. EPA developed this sampling procedure and the equipment/apparatus used in the procedure to eliminate the possibility of contaminating the samples with mercury from sources outside of the fluid to be tested. Both the sampling personnel and laboratory personnel take great efforts to make sure sample contamination does not occur.
The present invention provides a sampling device that meets the requirements of the EPA for sampling fluids for analytical testing procedures.